EXCURSION: Health-Nutrition-Agriculture/One Health: The Soil Microbiome
The microbiome, the totality of all microorganisms within a habitat (soil, plant, animal, human, ecosystem), has increasingly been recognized in recent years for its comprehensive importance to all life processes on earth and in humans.
The soil microbiome plays a central role here, serving as both the origin and networking hub for the microbiome components in plants, animals, and humans (Nature Rev. 2023).
The microbiome of fertile soil comprises trillions of bacteria, viruses, archaea, fungi and protozoa, whose influence on countless physiological processes and life processes we are only slowly beginning to understand.
Objectives & Competences
Focus: This weekend we will be looking at the soil microbiome and its central importance for healthy and sustainable life processes. How does “fertile soil” come about in the first place, how can it be maintained and what role does it play for the global ecosystem and human health (Blum 2019)?